Internal combustion engine



v June 28 1938. FM.JMA| LY l INTERNAL CMBUSTION ENGINE 'Filed March 5, 1937 71 KMA' l Patented- June V28,1938

.that it occurs when the piston is about to start Ur'uTisn sTATEs` PATENT ror-frljcit manen coimUs'rroN enema Marins Mallomnetroit, men. appresa@ ma' s.' 1931.. serial No. 129,264 2 n '1st-32) s in ivmcn a .piston -s is reciproca-ble by means or I This invention/relates to improvements in r:an

internal combustion engine ofthe typev which operates on very high compression and in which a charge of liquid fuel is injected under high -"pressure directly into the top of the cylinder when the piston is at or near the end of its com-- pression stroke.- The invention includes a small primary firing -chamber located adjacent the combustion chamber in the upper end of the cylinder and 'in com- 'munication therewith through a restricted port.' 'I'he primary firing 'chamber is charged with a normal combustible fuel mixture and is provided with a 'spark plug fo/igniting the same. 'I'he expansion in the primary firing chamber due to the explosion of the fuel mixture therein causes a flame to be projected at a hi'gh velocity through. the restricted port into and across the cylinder,

instantaneously.

-thus igniting the charge in the cylinder almost 20" 'It is therefore possible totime. the ignition muchV later than in the-conventional engine, so

upon its downward or power-stroke. The injection of liquid fuel into the cylinder does not take place until'the'pistonis substantially at the end Aof its compression stroke, soV that pre-ignition will be prevented.I

One of the objects of the invention is -to provide an engine whichmay be operated on exrtremely high compression offpre-ignition.

without the possibility Another object is to supply 'the primary firing chamber froml a suitable carburetor with fuel mixture, while the main power charge is -supplied in. the 7form of liquid injected directly into theJ cylinder and may be' fueloil. or other low grade fuel. 1.

A still further object is to 'time the intake valves `to vthe cylinder and the primary 'firing chamber,

so lthat theiatter will be nued with fuel mixture,

under all'operating conditions. At the same time, the restriction between the ring chamberand the cylinder is suchas to prevent` an'` excessively high compression in said chamber which might .resultin pre-ignition, although a very 'high compression is developed' in the cylinder but the `injection is late enough to preclude pre-ignition in thalatter.

The construction and .operation of the invention will be more particularlyexplained in connection with the accompanying drawing, which is a vertical section taken centrallythrough one of the engine cylinders, the primaryr firing chamber and the intake manifolds. .e s `'I'he drawing shows one of .the engine cylinders 'gine will then operate pression.

a piston' rod 1 connected with a crank shaft l operating in the usual manner in a crank caseL It is to be understood that the engine may have any ldesired number of cylinders.v The cylinder head I0 is formed above 'the cylinder l with acombustion chamber II connected by a restricted port I2 with a primary firing chamber I2 and the bottom It of this chamber, formed inthe cylinder block, is adaptedy to receive a spark.

' plug Il.

Fuer mixture is suppuea'- :to the chamber is fromzan intake manifold -IB through an inlet port |1.1which iscontrolled by a valve I8. An air l passageway I9 leads tothe manifold Il andds provided with a venturi 2l intokwhich a carburetor 2| is adapted to'discharge fuelthrough a nozzle 22.v The valve I8 isadapted to be opened' by a cam 23 disposed 'on la cam shaft 24, which.

driven atone half crank shaft speed, and is 'adapted to be closed by a spring 25.

` take valve 29'which is adapted to be opened by a cam 30' andto be 'closed by a spring'll, The cam- Skis disposed on a shaft 32, which is connested-ny gearing n to the` cam shaft u and rotates at the same speed. lIt. will be understood;

that the main combustion chamber I l is provided ywith the conventional exhaust port and valve, but the -exhaustases from the chamber I3. which are "a negligible factor in the operation of the' engine. are drawn into the cylinder .during the in take `stroke and dissipated. A throttle .valve 34 islocate'd in the intake passageway leading to the chamber I3, between the=nozzle22 and the intake manifold II. and is rod` Slis connected.` I have `also shown an air throttle valve 31 located in the air intake pas- .'in synchronism with the thro tle valve Il.' If

desired, the valve 31 may be o tted and the enwith a constant com- An'injector 39`is located in the cylinder I0 and disharges a so-called solidcharge of liquid fuel into the combustion chamber Il. The

compression at the `time of injection. especially when the valve 31 is' open or omitted altogether,

cause self-ignition,l but is much higher than `in the conventionalensine. 'In the Diesel. enllne,

provided with an arm 25 to whichthe throttle is not as high asv in-'a.Diesel 'engine.'which would erate on extremely high compression.

accurate timing of the ignition is impossible and, if the compression in one of the cylinders is not high enough, because of a defective valve or for some other reasonithe charge therein will not'be v ignited and the engine will miss, whereas in my engine, accurate timing is possible and the name projected from the primary firingchamber, which is very hot and of high velocity, causes com,- plete and positive combustion in the main combustion chamber of the cylinder almost simul' taneously withfthe occurrence of the spark in the chamber I3. i

Engines heretofore constructed; in which liquid fuel is injected into the cylinder and the charge ignited by an electric spark, do not op- The injection usually starts to take place when the piston is from 40 to 60f7 from top dead center on its compression stroke, and if the compression were extremely high, pre-ignition would occur. In my engine constructed in accordance with the present invention, the injection starts to 'take place when the piston is at or near top i inder.

dead center, which is much later than in the usual spark-ignited injection engines. The spark occurs in the chamber I3 almost simultaneously with the injection of liquid fuel into the cyl- Only avery little spark advance is necessary, since the flame from the small -combustion chamber I3 causes more rapid burning of the mixture. l V `If the valve 31 is used, the compression will of course be lower than when it is omitted and will vary withl variations of the throttle. With lower compression, the timing, ofthe injection of liquid fuel into the cylinder maybe in advance of the sparkj without'risk of pre-ignition.

engine is operatingwith substantially constant der.

It is to be noted, too, that the valves A3II and 3'I-are connected so that they open and Aclose-in unison, thus synchronously controlling the vol`l urne of the charges to both the main chamber Il and the primary. firing chamber I3. This synchronous control is necessary in order to insure the correct relative pressures in the two chambers.

It is important that, under all operating con ditions,` the chamber I3 be substantially filled with a combustible fuel mixture. It is. therefore desirable to set the cam 30151 advance of the cam 23, particularly if thevalve 31 is omitted and the compression. Then, if the valve 29 closes when the piston isnear the end of. its intake strok there will be 'a sudd n increase of vacuum in the cylinder which wil draw fuer-mixture from the carburetor 2| into'the `chamber I3 and fill the same.4 This insuresa hotflame when the spark occurs, resulting in complete and substantially instantaneous combustion in thecylin- Duet@ me met' that 'the name from them-1f mary flring chamber causes more instantaneous combustion, I desire to locate the cylinder oilcente'r from the crank so that the` expansion forces will-have a greater leverage over the crank per degrees o f travel. For example, if the cyl-l `-inder were set directly over center with reference' to the crankshaft, it .would not-have as much leverage over the crank shaft .in 10 travel as it would if. it were offset. Of course, it is im portant on which' side the cylinder is offset. IngJ this case, where the crank rotates clockwise, the cylinder should be .offset to4 the left from the center,` or opposite to the, direction ofy rotation.

'I'hen, 10 travelvof the crank shaft fgives the same direction as the crank shaft rotation. In

such case, the crank would haveto travel a a Y. greater number of degrees beforethe piston would have .leverage over it. This latter expel5 dient is. common practice among other manu,-

lfacturers where weak `ignition and slow burning i' mixtures are used.

There is only a comparatively small amount of fuel used in the small chamber It. This is pri- 20 marily for igniting the injectionchargein the cylinder, but will ordinarily be'sumcient to idle the engine, even if no charge of fuel is injected I into the cylinder. Thusa smooth idling is possible, which is not generally the case in a high 25 compression engine.

While I have suggested gasoline to be used in the small carburetor 2l, it willbe noted that there is a comparatively large heat chamber III around the manifold le. By the use of .this 30 1heat chamber itis possible to use a heavier grade of fuel in the carburetor, `as well as fory the -charge that is injected into the cylinder.

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that the invention provides/an engine which may 35 be operated with -greater economy and much higher compression than the conventional engine.

At the same time, a positive and accurately timed l spark ignition Ais'used without any riskof prestroke of the piston will be much lower-in the chamber I3v than inthe chamber II. Consef quent-ly, the mixture in the chamber I3 will lnot self-ignite, even though the engine is of the high y compression type. -1

'Ihe flame from the chamber Il, which is very l hot and is projected at a very high vefo'city into 551 and across the .top of the cylinder, is an extremely effective means lfor insuring substantially instantaneous combustion in the cylinder, so that the injection into the cylinder maybe. timed substantially the same as the spark is timed, orto 00 take place just a little in advance oftthe lspark. e It'isof course to be understood vthat the specinc structure' herein shown and described is merely illustrative and that the Jinvention also includes such modifications thereof as' may be g55 embraced within the` scope of the`appended claims. i

Having 'thus described the invention. what! Aclaim as new and desire to secure'v by Letters Patent, is:-

1. An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder formed with amain combustion chamber at its uppervend, a piston reciprocablein said cylinder, means for supplying air -to the cylinder, a primary firing chamberhaving a constant restricted port opening laterally into the main com'- bustion chamber, means for charging the pri mary tiring chamber with no'rmalvtuel mixture.-

interconnectedl throttle valves synchronously controlling the volume of the ,charges to the two chambers, means forinjecting liquid i'uel directly v into the main' combustion chamber when the piston is near the end of its compression' stroke, said restricted port Vbeing so small that the compression in the primary ilring chamber at the end of the compression stroke is considerably lower than in the main combustion chamber, andmeans forA lgniting the e in the primary firing cham- ,ber when the piston issubstantiallyin its upper most position, whereby a ila-me is projected at a high velocity into and across the main 'combus' tion chamber and causes substantially instantaneous combustion in the latter.

2. An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder including a main combustion chamber. a piston'reciprocable in cylinder. a primary ming-chamber having a constant restricted port opening into the main combustion chamber, each of said chambers having an intake port and valve,

the intake port of the primary firing chamber and air alone to the other intake port, mechanical means for openingsaid intake valves intimed relation to each other", means for injecting liquid means for supplyingy a throttled fuel mixture to l fuel directly into the-main combustion chamber on l the side remote from said primary iiring chamber, said restricted port being so small that the compression in the primary tiring chamber at the end of the` compression stroke is considerably 'lower than in the main combustion chamber, and

tion of the charge therein. Y

'I MARION muon'.

projecting a 

